With the new boxed set having been released this weekend, I figured I should probably write another of these status posts to give you all an update of my current way of thinking regarding the conversion.

I'll once again get started with core information in TL;DR form:

- 15 games per season
- Re-drafting budget of 1,000k + 10k per game + 10k per win + 5k per tie + team treasury
- Re-drafting hard cap of 1,350k

This remains unchanged from the last current thinking post, and I remain happy with these numbers.

All B and R teams will be merged into a single competitive division, with migration happening in a two step process:

1. Migration process
2. Re-drafting

The migration process will convert teams from the bb2016 rules to the bb2020 setting. This is a complicated process, which does the following:

1. Convert positions from the old positions to new ones, which is a fairly straight-forward process where most changes are "obvious". The core of the positions on each roster has not changed, so there is pretty much a one-to-one path here. The exception to this is tournament prize players who may not be available on the bb2020 roster. As part of the migration process, these off-roster positionals will retire.

2. Convert skills on players to their bb2020 equivalent. This is a more complex conversion, where there isn't an obvious one-to-one in some cases. The method that will be applied is a custom map between bb2016 skills to bb2020 ones. In addition to this, any skill that ends up being a duplicate, or is no longer available on the new roster will be dropped (essentially de-leveling the player). This will include skills given out as prizes from previous major tournaments.

3. Convert SPP to available SPP to spend. The intent here is to do a linear interpolation between the player's existing SPP level and the next skill (for legends, available SPP will be set to 0). This "level progress" will be applied to the cost of a random stat as per the player's new level. For example, a player with 36 SPP will have a "progress" of (36-31)/(51-31) = 5 / 20 = 0.25. This will be applied to the cost of a fourth stat improvement (28 SPP), which sets the player to 7 SPP available.

4. Fan Factor will be converted to dedicated fans. This will be a simple formula where teams with more wins than losses will be set to 4, otherwise it's set to 3. There is no real benefit of making something more complicated for this.

After this, the teams will be forced into re-drafting as per the settings listed above. There will be no increased budget for existing teams. After spending some time considering the effects of doing that, it becomes clear that it would cause havoc with the official tournaments for years, and there's no good way to come up with a solution that doesn't require a complex system or extensive development. I completely understand that some teams will have trouble with the re-drafting process, and still believe this is the better way.

With some people being unhappy about the naming of the "only random games" flag for teams in the new division, despite the chosen term being well-established in the gaming industry, I'll back down and change the status of the teams to use the terms "open" and "strict". The Blackbox Trophy long-term event will continue be only for "strict" teams. At any time (unless participating in the trophy), a team will be able to switch from strict to open, but the reverse will not be an option to begin with. After seasons have been running for a while this restriction may be lifted and an option to switch to strict will be available in the re-drafting process. For now, though, it's a one-way street.

Finally, let me talk a bit briefly about the timing of when FUMBBL will make the switch. This is a very difficult topic to answer, but I am hoping to be able to make the switch in Q1 of next year. Initially, I was hoping to be able to get it done before the end of the year, but with some delays caused by illness on my part (I'm fine, thanks for asking) and some other things to deal with outside of FUMBBL, this is no longer a realistic target. I am trying to spend as much time as possible to get through the things that need to be updated and there are a few people who are immensely helpful and contributing some of their spare time to getting things done (thank you Stowelly and Candlejack).

This weekend, I have been working on a script that previews the migration step of what's listed above, and you can take a look at the current state if you wish, and replace the id with your own teams to see what it looks like. In fact, I am asking you all to take a look and see if you find problems with what it outputs so I can identify and fix these issues before the actual migration happens. Note that there's a LOT of work still remaining on this. If you find any problems, please drop me a message on Discord with a link to the team's migration page and briefly explain the issue.

Before I refer you all to the forum to talk about this, I'll say a word about Slann. Slann teams are no longer official and will not be able to migrate into the new competitive division. These teams will be able to move into L instead (and will therefore not be forced into re-drafting). I am not planning to offer this option to any other team at this point.

And with that, please let me know your thoughts and/or comments about this on the companion forum post